


Live to Rise

by Moonrose91



Series: Gift Verse [12]
Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-06
Updated: 2012-09-06
Packaged: 2017-11-13 17:58:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/506183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonrose91/pseuds/Moonrose91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is all smoke and mirrors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Live to Rise

“You have heart,” Loki taunts softly and presses the staff to his chest.

The one thought that fills his head is the last moment with his seven, a month away from eight, year old daughter.

* * *

_Clint smiled as he ran his fingers through his daughter’s hair._

_“Why?” she whispered._

_Her vocabulary was limited, mostly because she was still learning how to form the words correctly and he rests his hand on her shoulder, before he pulls her into a gentle hug. He then carefully held her at arm’s length. “Because they need my eyes. Behave for Uncle Nick?” he questioned softly, signing as he did, though he suspected her lip-reading was better than she let on, and Elizabeth hesitated._

_He could see her thinking it over and he smiled when she nodded in agreement._

_“Good,” he responded and pressed a kiss to her cheek before he stood up. She held onto his hand and he smiled, swinging his arm back slightly before he picked up Nafu and handed the dragon to her._

_Elizabeth beamed and pouted before she clasped the dragon protectively to her chest._

_He moves to leave when she suddenly grabs him, staring up at him with wide eyes._

Promise to come back?, _she signed._

_“I promise to come back,” he answered._

* * *

Clint blinks, exhausted and Loki is there. He whispers in Clint’s ear, something…something important, far more important than anything that Loki needs of him and his world is darkness again.

* * *

Daddy, daddy, come see, come see!

_Elizabeth is signing rapidly, her fingers flowing and Clint wonders, distantly, if her voice will follow the grace in which she talks with her hands. He follows her, easily, calmly and laughs at where Nafu is perched in the tree of their newest backyard. “How did he get up there?” he questioned._

He flew! _Elizabeth insisted._

_Clint smiled and helped get him down, handing him back to the five year old, who clutched him protectively her chest. “Well, he’s safe here with you now,” Clint stated as he signed and Elizabeth laughed before hugging him._

_He rests his hand on her hair and rubs noses with her._

* * *

Clint coughs, shakes his head, and feels as if he’s doing something wrong. Loki is there and he flinches away when Loki’s lips are against his ear. Words echo in his ear and he’s back in the darkness.

* * *

_Phil is smiling as he swings their daughter carefully up in his arms._

_This kidnapping was not so painless this time, for she came back with a broken arm and scratches on her face from where she had fallen from the grip her kidnapper had on her, running despite the pain._

_Seeing the purple cast on her arm is enough to make his fingers itch for his bow or a knife, wishing to kill them all again._

* * *

His world explodes in pain.

It shatters him out of the darkness and he gasps, blinking wearily around, seeing Natasha standing above him like an avenging angel. “Tasha?” he questioned.

She kicks him in the head.

* * *

When he wakes again, his head is clear. Natasha is keeping a secret from him, but all she says is “Elizabeth is safe.”

And then Captain America is standing in the doorway, asking Natasha if she can fly the Quinjet, and he’s volunteering, because Phil would like it and Elizabeth would be excited out of her mind when he tells her about how he helped both Captain America _and_ Iron Man.

He walks out and ignores the fact that he can’t remember what Loki whispered to him every time he broke free, or even _how_ he did it…twice.

It will bug him later, but not now.

* * *

“Clint, I need to tell you something,” Natasha stated, after the battle is over, after Loki was sent home (and Natasha always had a sense of humor, saying all those dirty things in Russian about gags and demi-gods, but the last one was the funniest).

They are elsewhere, but Clint shakes his head. “I’ve got to find Elizabeth, and then I have to unearth Phil from wherever the hell he is. I need them right now,” Clint argued softly.

She opens her mouth to say something when his phone rings. He picks up with a low snarl. “Barton,” he greets quickly.

 _“I need you at the nearest SHIELD hospital, now. Bring Romanov,”_ Fury ordered and hung up.

“Fury wants us at the nearest hospital,” Clint stated and was already starting their car, since Natasha didn’t like to drive in the city unless she had to.

She is silent for the rest of the trip.

* * *

Clint is surprised when Fury is there, waiting.

They had thought he was on the helicarrier, but he’s holding Elizabeth and Clint is moving, already wrapping his arms around her tightly and she clings back, Nafu bumping against the back of his neck as she buries her head into his shoulder.

Clint isn’t sure why he feels so damn relieved.

“Come with me,” Fury orders and they follow.

They follow to the very bowels of the hospital, to the most secure areas.

He sees what is basically a house underground, and Clint stops short at seeing Phil attached to machines, the beeping filling him with reassurance.

“He’ll be in a medical coma for a month or so, but after that he will be fine. Elizabeth has a few bruises from being on the helicarrier when it started to go down, but she’s fine. I’m sorry Agent Romanov, but I needed to get Captain Rogers and Stark to start working together. With Rogers’s hero complex and Stark’s PTSD, I knew that a death would do it,” Fury explained.

She’s glaring at him and Clint knows this because he hears the slap.

Natasha begins to hiss at him in Russian, snarling and furious, but Clint just sits next to Phil’s bed.

When their argument is over (Russian, Pashto, Mandarin, Japanese, French, and Icelandic were all used in their argument and he could only follow about half), Fury tells him that he will have what he and Elizabeth need to stay here for as long as they wish.

It explains why they are so deep.

Usually they only use these rooms when they are terrified that the person will die by outside forces and thus why there is a house underground.

Clint just thanks Fury quietly and continues to hold Elizabeth.

He’s not sure when, or why, he starts singing Elton John.

It just seems like the right thing to do.

* * *

Clint had settled Elizabeth, carefully, next to Phil on the bed and she had twisted his hand, carefully, to sign into it, like she did when his eyes were tired.

Clint just chatters and is glad that Elizabeth can’t hear.

He’s pretty sure her revenge for her Mama’s cards would be frighteningly efficient and Clint already has enough heart attacks without having to think about what Elizabeth’s future most likely entails.

“I hope you wake up soon. Elizabeth will be upset if you don’t wake up in time for her birthday. You have a week,” Clint added quietly.

Elizabeth is asleep now, her hand pressed against Phil’s hand in a familiar gesture, one that is frequent in their home, spoken with a voice she can’t hear and said with their hands.

_I love you._

* * *

They take Phil off the drugs that are keeping him under and immobile three days after Elizabeth’s eighth birthday.

It was celebrated with a Captain America shield cake and an eight year old who had merely blown out the candles and thanked those who got her presents, Nick, Natasha, Maria, Sitwell, and Clint & Phil, who had bought her present four days after Christmas.

She then spent the rest of the day curled up with Phil and signing into his palm.

He wakes up an hour later to a whispered, “Mama, up.”

“Hey,” Clint greeted softly and Phil smiles up at him, weakly holding onto Elizabeth, who as diligently keeping off his chest.

“Hey,” he rasped out and Clint gives him ice chips.

Phil’s awake and their family feels whole again.

**Author's Note:**

> So...yeah.
> 
> That was my fix-it.
> 
> I have no idea how it works.


End file.
